[alfa] RE: Alfa Bill - tensioners

[Brad Anesi <brad.anesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

I'm not Bill, but I'll weigh in with my opinion regardless...

From what I've seen first-hand and heard, the spring on the mechanical
tensioners is just as likely to fail after 100 miles as it is at 100,000
miles.  If it was JUST an issue of them being more likely to fail after
XX,000 miles of use, I could live with that.  It's the fact that such a
critical part is somewhat prone to "infant mortality" that bothers me.  

Now before I scare any of you away from driving your V6 Alfa with mechanical
tensioner retrofit, bear in mind that while failures have occurred, millions
of trouble-free miles have been driven without a problem as well.  Generally
speaking, the part doesn't fail.  However, given the nature of what does
happen when this part fails, this part deserves to be of much higher
quality, "virtually indestructible" is the phrase that comes to mind.


Brad
-----------------------
From: Carl750@domain.elided
Sounds like you have a lot of experience with the tensioners ..... what is 
the life expectancy of the mechanical tensioner?   Why not also throw in
your 
opinion of the belt life.
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